Album review: Tribulation – Sub Rosa In Æternum

Tribulation’s last album, 2021’s Where The Gloom Becomes Sound, was the point at which the Swedish ghouls emphatically mastered the black-metal-band-does-goth-bops sound. If they’d had it nicely sewn up before, it was here that they delivered a definitive statement, the result of careful experiments in darkness.

Sub Rosa In Æternum doesn’t try to copy. Instead, it sees Tribulation moving as they have always done, into whatever dark corners they can find in their music. Where that album had moments of flamboyance, here they’ve gone for something often more suited to autumnal solitude.

Indeed, it often goes away from their more metalised gear entirely, going full mask-off Nick Cave fanboy at times (the dramatic, piano-led Reaping Song), or completely goth (Murder In Red, with its stalking, sparse bass, electronic drums and deep, deep vocals from frontman Johannes Andersson). On Saturn Coming Down, it’s almost like Iron Maiden goes post-punk (squint hard), while Drink The Love Of God is a fast one that’ll probably appeal to fans of Creeper.

There’s talk of the influence of British goth and Italian cinema here. This is all present and correct, teased out of them by producer Tom Dalgety (Green Lung, Royal Blood), and as masters of such dark arts, Tribulation have twisted it into something sinfully appealing.

That they do all this without a feeling of having left anything behind from their earlier work – even if what harsher edge they have now shares a lot more of its duvet than it once did – only furthers the point. If you want it painted black, Tribulation are your lords of the dark.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Unto Others, Watain, Grave Pleasures

Sub Rosa In Æternum released on November 1 via Century Media